


A Secret Language of Seashells and Glass

by lucidscreamer



Series: Sky and Sea [1]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Mermaid, Alternate Universe - Shipwrecked, Attempted Murder, Courtship, Desert Island, Drabble Sequence, Fictional Religion & Theology, Happy Ending, M/M, Magic-Users, Merman Yugi, NOT Little Mermaid, Original Merfolk Culture, POV Alternating, Prose Poem, Romance, Romantic Soulmates, Sirens, Slow Build, Transformation, Yami is a separate person, castaway Yami, merfolk, narrative poetry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-19
Updated: 2018-10-08
Packaged: 2019-07-14 05:03:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 6,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16033529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lucidscreamer/pseuds/lucidscreamer
Summary: Interfering with humans is forbidden, but this human (beautiful, intriguing) calls to Yugi.  This human must live.Saving him might be the best game yet.(This fic is a series of 100 word drabbles paired with prose poems of varying lengths. The final chapter is a ficlet.)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This has been sitting in my WIPs folder since 2015; it's about time to get it out of there.
> 
> Apologies to everyone reading my other WIPs, especially "Reflections in the Nile." I was unable to access the internet until about a month ago. And then a week ago, I fell and hurt my...everything, basically. I'm hobbling around on crutches and my right wrist is in a brace, which makes using the crutches /extra/ fun. D:
> 
> Anyway, this fic is basically complete, I'm just doing some minor editing as I post. This is a bit of an experiment for me: a drabble sequence, but with supplementary prose poems that expand a bit on each drabble in the series. It's been an interesting experience; I hope you enjoy it, too. (And, with any luck, I'll get a new chapter on RitN up soon.)

Yami's life feels half lived, deferred with the promise of "someday."

Someday, when...

...school's done.

...he's twenty-one.

...he's his own man, out from under his uncle's thumb.

"Someday's" finally today. The will's conditions are met, and, Akhnadin be damned, Yami's future is clear.

Today, Yami celebrates his birthday (his freedom). Today, his _whole_ life begins.

But "today" drowns in heated exchanges and cold glances, culminating in Akhnadin's shark-smile as Yami sails toward an unwanted party on the family yacht.

When the stars rise, the night explodes. Flame-filled tides rip "someday" away--

\--and Yami crashes into a sea of "never."

　

o0o

　

Hungry with greed, you stole this dirty gold, Uncle, and I hope you choke on it. Money meant more to you than your brother's life, your son's compassion, your nephew's love. I'll not delude myself that any of those things mattered to you; any accounting of your conscience would find only sick joy in your actions. You've filled your coffers and emptied my heart. Once, I would have loved you with all a child's innocence, seeing only blood between us. Now, my heart is hollow, and yours is the hand that bloodied the knife. They say the sea is cold, but betrayal is colder; you only ever put your arm around me to better drive the knife in deeper. If I must, I'd rather meet my end in this bloodied ocean than endure another day in your "care." The sea's cold embrace is warmer than any emotion I've ever had from you.

　


	2. Chapter 2

Yugi loves games.

Every task becomes a game... even here, scouting past the liminal waters.

Anchored above him, a boat paints the surface in dancing lights. He chases the pattern (blue-yellow-green), catching each color in his hand.

Suddenly, the water is painted red. A shockwave spins him dizzyingly. When he surfaces, the night is aflame.

Surrounded by blood and debris, a human floats limply in the water. Yugi's amulet pulses danger: _shark, shark._

Interfering with humans is forbidden, but t _his_ human (beautiful, intriguing) calls to Yugi. T _his_ human must live.

Saving him might be the best game yet.

　

o0o

　

Bright like Agbi Who Burns, colors dance across the water. Yugi darts from one to one to one, silver arrow flashing -- light to dark, water to air. He is a Hunter, a Dancer, creating games as he spirals and spins through forbidden waters, so close to creatures who think him only myth. Darting, dancing, his tail propelling him in graceful loop-lines, he cups light in his palms, captured like a spark of inspiration from Cothea Who Creates. His simple joy is ripped apart by _shock-heat_ , _sound-pain_ , flickers of lava red that paint the sea with blood. Suddenly, there is a man in the water. Long and eel-lean, he is sun-bronzed, with shadow-dark hair drifting around his head like kelp in the currents. The fire paints him in the colors of sunset, of sunken gold from ancient treasure ships, of wishes whispered in the shadows of the night. His blood paints the waters the color of shark-hunger, of death. But death does not claim him this night; instead, Prince Yugi does.


	3. Chapter 3

_Misplaces_ , small pockets in the magic segregating human and merfolk dominions, are dangerous. But, for Charms in exile, they are sanctuaries.

Earthshakes and their aftermath force Yugi's Charm to flee their native waters. They find no refuge until they shelter beneath a tropical atoll, hidden from humans and merfolk alike.

The _Misplace_ is a tight squeeze, and the paucity of food forces them to hunt in human waters, but it's safer than the open sea.

Bringing home bounty from a shipwreck, Yugi is hailed a hero. (He doesn't tell his them his greatest find is hidden on the island above.)

　

o0o

　

With all his will, Yugi wraps his arms around the man, wraps his magic around the man, and _takes them Away_. Away from the gliding grace of sharks circling nearer, drawn by the human's blood in the water. Away from death, circling like sharks. Away from the human world, debris drifting down in slow circles to rest on the ocean floor. With the man in his arms, Yugi swims; circling, a graceful spiral drawn through borders lit by flame, outlined by blood. Away, into this _Misplace_ , where the small atoll above his Charm's grotto will serve as a temporary home for t _his_ human, keeping him safe as he heals.


	4. Chapter 4

Yugi beaches them.

As they lie in the sand, his magic skims the human's wounds, encouraging healing. Water laps at Yugi's skin and scales, the magic of the waves boosting his own.

He thinks there would be magic in the caress of t _his_ human's skin against his, a song in the promise of a kiss, lips soft against his... But he won't take what isn't freely given, and the human sleeps, still.

So, he heals t _his_ human as best he can, with magic and what meager medicines he carries, and leaves him to his new home without caress or kiss.

　

o0o

　

Yugi builds a little shrine, a pebble cairn balanced just above the reaching fingers of the waves. Each pebble, tumbled smooth by ocean currents, he embues with a wish: safety and good health and every blessing the good ocean can provide. One by one, he touches the stones to the human's skin before setting them one atop the other and crowning his construct with a twist of sun-bleached coral. He holds a handful of seafoam, scooped from the water's edge, and whispers prayers -- to Cothea Who Heals (make him whole), and Inomathus Who Shelters (keep him safe), and Nirzi Who Walks (protect him from the Lales and those who would do him further harm) --before letting the foam run through his fingers to bless the wish-stones and t _his_ man that they will guard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since these are such short chapters, I'm going to try to post them two at a time. Especially since I'm not certain how long I'll have access to the internet.
> 
> Thanks for the comments and well-wishes. I'm in a lot of pain today (hence being up at 4am to post this), but your kind words made me feel a bit better. I'm glad y'all are enjoying this story. :)
> 
> I'll respond individually to comments when I have more energy.


	5. Chapter 5

Listening to the susurration of the waves and watching his third sunset since he washed up on this apparently unpopulated atoll, Yami scratches a new tally mark on a palm rib.

Tide pools yield small fish and edible seaweed to supplement his abundance of coconuts. Bits of the yacht's wreckage wash onto the beach: strangely useful things, like canned food and an emergency kit from the lifeboat. Perhaps improbably, he finds a freshwater spring near the island's center.

For the first time, he appreciates all those years of summer camps and survival hikes, suffered less than gracefully in his youth.

　

o0o

　

In the tropics, sunset is quick, heavy and quiet, and on its heels night draws its cloak, quick and heavy and quiet, black as a crow's wings burdened with strange stars. What quick luck saved him, stranded him here on this forgotten island in a wilderness of water, and yet saves him, still, with daily gifts from the sea? In the late quiet hours, quick thoughts burn like lava in his veins (why, uncle? what did I do to make you hate me so?), while his ribs ache with the strain of containing his heavy heart. Uncertainty lies heavy on his mind, thoughts darting quick like silver fish, until sleep finally steals him away to restless dreams, mystic-finned and dissonant beneath the quiet march of the stars.

　


	6. Chapter 6

Singers are warriors, voices both weapon and lure.

Yugi's grandmother is a Siren-Queen, her voice honed like blades. But, though Yugi can Sing, he hates fighting, preferring to make friends. As a Hunter, his occupation is providing for the Charm, not fighting.

By day he hunts and gathers food (fish, seaweed, crustaceans, shellfish, the occasional unwary seabird); with nightfall, he plays (on shell rattles, horns, pipes Grandfather carves from whalebone) tunes for others to dance to, leaping and twisting like wild Spinners.

In moonlight, he hides among the corals guarding the atoll, and pipes a sweet song of longing across the waves.

　

o0o

　

By the edges of memory-- this one soft, another sharp-- Sirens measure time. Sister Moon and Brother Sun are muted by the ocean's veil, and the _Misplace_ warps and twists the currents of Space-Time to suit itself. (Living within these bubbles, Seers remember the future and shape the past with stories; there is a reason even Elders bow to the wisdom of _Misplaced_ Seers.) Lost to daydreams of his past-that-will-be, Yugi haunts the edges of the island, this Nowhere that is both There and Here, and Now and Then and Yet-to-Be. When he surfaces, the air hangs smoke-slow and heavy, perfumed by burning driftwood. Yugi watches the human as he marks out arcane spells in shell and dark stone on the white sand, and diligently tends his ritual fires. The man's skin is burnished by the caress of the sun; his hair rivals the sunset (fiery red and gold like Hetis Who Lights the Day as He swims into the dark waters of the night), and Yugi finds a new game in predicting the curve of his smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can you tell that I have a lot more fun writing Yugi's POV in this story? ;)


	7. Chapter 7

Identical days trudge past. Blue ocean, bluer sky. Rhythmic waves, fish, clouds, birds. Sand, palm trees. Coconuts.

Yami counts the days in sunsets.

He collects detritus from the beach: tins to store water, to cook, and bits to add to his shelter.

He watches the empty horizon and hopes for rescue.

One day, he finds a book with salt-encrusted pages and lays it to dry by the fire. The book is unreadable, but he stares at the illustrations: mermaids luring sailors to their watery deaths with seductive, siren songs.

At night, he dreams of unearthly music murmuring across the waves.

　

o0o

　

Night trails after night, and day stalks after day, inevitable as the ceaseless motion of the waves or the burning epiphany of the sun. The unburdened sea stretches out, a watery road to nowhere, endless blue ocean melding with infinite blue sky until he almost seems encased in a vast bubble. He grounds himself with the shifting grit of the sand beneath his bare feet, and the ghostly touch of the wind running it's fingers through his hair. He dives beneath the clear waters of the lagoon, wary eyes open for sharks, following the darting rainbows of tropical fish. On the sea-floor, ragged and forlorn, like castles snared by the sea and drowned, coral ramparts guard his passage.

Yami's eyes are ever drawn to the sea, seeking hints of motion among the waves beyond his placid lagoon. Each day marches in monotony; pitiless sun and heat, flat-blue sea and sky bleeding together in the horizon, palms swaying in the trade-winds that ruffle the azure water. The heat is narcotic, blurring the edges of the days. At night, beyond the light of his signal fires, he stares at the stars and traces new constellations in the sky. He doesn't know how he can be so far south as to render them unrecognizable, but the stars are strange and the great fins he sometimes sees from the corner of his eye are twilight shades of blue-purple-gray, so the dolphins here are stranger still.

The swift twilight finds him huddled in his shelter, contemplating the glass-still lagoon. The moon's reflection is a ghost in the water, haunting him with heavy visions -- a ghost himself, dead at his uncle's whim, reflected in silver-chalice waters. The warm caress of the wind brings the sound of a flute or pipe, trilling soft as whispers over the waves; not music, but the soul of music, drifting up the lonely beach to haunt him.


	8. Chapter 8

Yugi courts the man with gifts: food from the sea, music, pretty bits of shell and seaglass.

T _his_ human is beautiful -- lean and golden and strong. Yugi watches him swim and fish (he is awkward at first, but learns quickly, so Yugi adds "smart" to his accounting of his human's charms). He wants to talk to t _his_ human, learn all his truths, receive the man's name and gift his own in return.

Hidden by shadows, he observes from the lagoon and chases away the hungry sharks that lurk while _his_ human swims.

And every night, Yugi serenades him to sleep.

　

　

o0o

　

Yugi knows that those not of the sea deem Sirens hasty in love. They're not; Sirens simply know their hearts, and are decisive in recognizing their mates when Phyros Who Gives Joy shows them the way. Grandfather fell at first song for Grandmother, wooed by the fierce warrior-queen who courted him with shark's teeth and sharper smiles, and sang savage songs of love and conquest. His father won his mother's esteem with his prowess as a Dancer, strong and graceful as he leaped above the waves as if he would gather the stars as a courting gift. With their blood beating in his veins, it's no wonder Yugi knows his own heart's match so swiftly. He knows t _his_ human is his mate, chosen for him by the sea and Those Who Bless its inhabitants. He welcomes love with a smile and a joyous flick of fins blushed the deeper blue of the twilight ocean, and joins his cohort in the hunt with renewed vigor. Tonight, he will gratefully offer an _entire shark_ to Phyros' altar.

　

　


	9. Chapter 9

Daily, Yami hopes for rescue.

He spells out SOS on the beach above the tide. He burns bonfires day and night, hoping to attract the notice of a passing boat or plane.

Tending the fires helps pass the time. But there are no boats or planes, no zepplins, or pirate ships, or sea-gods riding dolphins. Nothing but endless sea and sky.

Movement out past the breakers catches his eye: a flash of fluke or fin disappearing beneath the waves. Perhaps a curious, spy-hopping dolphin?

Struck by sudden whimsy, Yami smiles. Maybe the dolphin's gone to fetch its sea-god to save him.

 

o0o

　

Some days, the anger threatens to consume him. His uncle's actions were premeditated, cold and calculated rather than an act of momentary madness. Any familial sentiments that Yami might still have clung to drowned in the cleansing waters, and he (born anew) arose from their foam a different creature than the broken man who fell in. Strange visions haunt his sleep, like second-sight unfurling "what-ifs" and "why didn't I's" in the peopleless silence. Under his uncle's thumb, Yami now sees that he was a _poseur_ in his own skin, playing at being himself. Now, here, the silence strips away layers of artifice worn as armor, baring the true self beneath. Unfurling like a lotus in the first breath of creation, arising as a new sun from the open petals, he settles into his skin, feeling alive for the first time since his father died.

　

　

　


	10. Chapter 10

Yami's been Robinson-Crusoeing on this island for seven days. On most, he's seen "his dolphin's" ...flukes? (From some angles, they seem more like fishy fins...?)

Daily, he's stumbled across something useful or intriguing: tasty sea-life in the shallows, necklaces of polished seaglass and shell curled on the sand.

Is his "friend" herding food and floating flotsam into shore? _No_. Dolphins are intelligent, but... No way is his _taking care of_ him.

Worried he's one sunrise away from scratching a face onto a coconut for company, Yami refuses to _seriously_ consider...

(He spots tell-tale flukes/fins and calls "Thank you!" anyway.)

　

o0o

　

He wears the necklaces, strokes his fingers over the smooth glass "stones" and rough fibers as he contemplates the endless sea. He collects shells and water-worn pebbles and shiny bits of metal (from this wreckage or another), and picks fibers from the linen shirt he keeps in his shelter as proof he was once a part of civilization and not a wild man sprung from the sand and waves by some strange spontaneous generation. He twists the fibers into cord and weaves the cord around and through his finds, crafting jewelry of a sort for... himself? His "friend" in the ocean? Yami laughs at himself as he winds his adornments around his wrists and into his hair along with the gifts from the sea (as eclectic as his own creations, ancient coins or pearls side-by-side with glass beads and broken pottery). He can't imagine what he looks like, with seaglass and gold glittering in his hair, but at least his whimsy keeps his hands occupied. And when his thoughts tangle and twist back into doubt, he holds the smooth, cool surface of seaglass or shell and his heart settles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise there will be actual interaction between these two very soon! (Should I add a "slow build" tag?)


	11. Chapter 11

Yugi's human spoke to him!

His chest fills with warmth and he preens as he swims, a flash of deep-blue-sea and seafoam among shoals of bright fish like shards of sunlight.

He's heard his mate's voice before, but never aimed at the sea -- at _Yugi_. It's unfortunate they don't share a language...

Yugi considers his treasures, human things acquired from shipwrecks or trade. Which one to pick? A _special_ trinket, to celebrate this momentous step and to make his intentions clear...

Ah-ha!

He holds up the glass bubble, a tiny scene of undersea life frozen inside.

 _Perfect_.

 

　

o0o

　

Yugi likes to conceal himself in the shadows of the corals and watch his human. He swims as if born to it, his hair a halo around his face, Yugi's courting gifts entwined with the swaying tresses. Necklaces of carved abalone shell, nacre gleaming like captured rainbows, adorn his sun-gilded chest, and his wrists are wrapped 'round with purple cord twisted through found jewels. His body is long and lean, muscled like a Dancer and just as graceful. Out of the water, he stands proudly, back straight and tall, head held high as he gazes out over the water. He looks every inch the prince he will be when he accepts Yugi's troth, and Yugi's heart aches with pride and the pleasure of knowing this man is his mate.

The language barrier is a problem he's not considered before; but he prays to Nirios Who Speaks, patron of traders and diplomats and messenger of the gods, and an answer is given. And so Yugi searches for two perfect pearls, carries them close to his heart as he swims, and prays to Nirios Who Speaks every night to set the spell that will permit him to communicate with _his_ human when at last they speak.

　


	12. Chapter 12

Yami's not yet the guy who talks to coconuts, but maybe he's losing his mind, anyway.

Things are beaching themselves daily.

"Dolphin" sightings abound, but there's something subtly... _off_ about them.

And now, there's this snowglobe.

When he lifts it, the glitter inside swirls in a blizzard of sparkles. As it settles, he sees that the globe holds a fantastic tropical reef. At the center, two sleek dolphins --one light, one dark-- arc around one another, a yin-yang symbol suspended in mid-water.

Suddenly, his crazy musings seem almost plausible.

Maybe his friend's not the _dolphin_ , but the sea-god astride it?

　

o0o

　

Life here is dream-like, surreal as time measured in sun's heat and the slow wheel of the Milky Way. Yami's sea-god, a fantasm, feels more real than reality, even as he remains an unseen fancy. Unseen, but not unlooked for; despite his best efforts, Yami's eyes return again and again to the turquoise lagoon, to the deeper blue of the sea beyond, seeking some hint of fin or fluke. "Strange" has become commonplace; given time, he'll breakfast with impossibilities. Now, Yami unwinds a long strand of purple linen cord --woven through pierced shells and metal grommets and looped around interesting bits of glass or stone-- from his wrist and knots the ends to form a loop. Even as his face heats with a flush at his foolishness, his heart drums a fantasia of strange hope, ignoring all the rules... and he sets the new-formed necklace atop the cairn of rocks he'd found on the shore, an offering on the altar of his folly.

　


	13. Chapter 13

With his own hands, Yami crafted _Yugi_ a necklace -- pretty shells and seaglass and bits of human metals -- all strung with purple fibers plucked from his human coverings and twisted into cord.

Such a gift! Land-fibers and metal are rare commodities in the sea, and purple the color of royalty. Yugi's hands tremble as he settles the necklace over his heart.

His Charm cluster around him and clamor over this newest treasure adorning their prince, and Yugi preens with pride in his clever mate and his clever mate's fine courting gift. Truly, Those Who Bless have favored him.

　

o0o

　

In the language of gift-exchange, Yugi has composed entire odes to his human's beauty, written in the shimmer of nacre and the glowing colors of coral. He's pledged his loyalty and love in the gleam of gold, noble and untarnishing as Hetis' Sun; extolled his endless fascination in silver scales and beads that shine like droplets of Harib's Moonlight. Yugi's heart swells with each necklace encircling his beloved's throat, each bracelet clasping the pulse at his wrists, every jewel wound into his lovely hair.

Among Yugi's own adornments, his beloved's gift takes pride of place, and he runs his hands over it again and again, reading: "I am curious," "I welcome your friendship," "worth beyond beauty," and the one that sets his blood racing, swift as Maelus' currents, "Your affections may find a place in my heart."


	14. Chapter 14

When Yugi next beaches himself, he finds a strange design sketched on the sand above the surf.

Obviously the work of his human, the rectangular design is filled with smaller, shaded squares. Some of them hold a tiny bright shell, others a dark smooth pebble. After studying this arrangement for a time, Yugi smiles. It's a game.

His perfect, wonderful mate has gifted him with a _game_.

Never has Yugi met one who's such a match for him! His magic flares as he traces his fingers over this game _made just for him_ , ensuring that the sea will not erase it.

　

o0o

　

　

Yugi is not a Dancer, but today his heart is; it leaps and spins with joy bright as Hetis' orb as it turns the ocean waves to gold. Yugi is not a Singer, but today his heart feels as if it could defeat any obstacle separating him from his mate. Love is like diving into the ocean depths on the trail of whales; fathomless, exciting and terrifying by turns, but great of reward. The pounding of his pulse tremors through him like an earthshake, but his hands are steady as he lays the blessed pearl -- its twin at his throat -- atop the game board his mate has drawn in the sand.


	15. Chapter 15

Yami and his benevolent sea-god play games on the boundary between beach and water. They invent rules, and set pebble and shell on 'boards' drawn in the sand.

With an ease that feels like magic, they create their own argot (unvoiced, their secret neography), sketching entire conversations on the beach. As shells contain the ocean's vast voice, their exchanges convey entire tomes' meaning.

One rebus in particular is special: Yami's friend draws it again and again.

Yami ponders the puzzle for days, before realizing it's a name.

" _Yugi_?"

Yami smiles as he scribes his own name beside it.

　

o0o

　

The pearl puzzles him. Sea-gifted, it rests above the board he drew in a moment more of whimsy than boredom (and perhaps more hope than both) -- a board that, despite water and wind, endures past all reason. A mystery, like the pearl. Large as the tip of his thumb, and softly irridescent in the light, as if embued with captured moonglow, the pearl is perfect. It rests on a band just long enough to embrace his throat. When he sets it against his skin, he shivers, waves of blue heat curling through his veins. His ears echo with the beat of muffled drums, the frail trill of ghostly pipes, the whisper of wild voices murmuring in a strange tongue like the ebb and flow of the sea. The earthly beauties of the shore pale beside this wonder of the deep, this pearl, glowing with all the mysteries of the ocean in its heart.

Yami thinks of half-seen shadows beneath the waves, of fins or flukes, of myth and mystery, and the silver notes that dance like the ghost of moonlight over the water at night to ease his dreams. And he dreams of gentle eyes and strong hands pulling him from certain death... and wakes with the taste of salt and longing on his lips.

　

　


	16. Chapter 16

Yugi's heart soars with joy.

Among his people, he's a champion gamer, but his human is at least as clever. He solves the puzzle Yugi left him with impressive speed; now he holds Yugi's name. And he leaves Yugi an equal gift, his own name: _Yah-mee_.

Generous, intelligent, beautiful, and strong. The sea blessed Yugi when it gave him Yah-mee.

Soon, Yugi will reveal himself to his intended. He'll hold Yah-mee's strong hands, caress his handsome face, kiss his sweet lips. He'll speak Yah-mee's name and hear his own spoken in return.

They'll be mates, joined-as-one by Zol Who Binds.

　

o0o

　

From some distant human land, you came to me and I, I have unwoven the world for you. Picked apart the blue-green threads of Time and Tide; remade the raveled edges of wave-foam and -form, bound a space for you into this wild magic. I would cloak your shoulders in twilight, pull down the stars to crown your brow. I would wake with you each morning, watch as dawn reveals your face like a lotus rising from dream-waters as a new sun, and become filled with wonder anew at your presence beside me. With conch shells and bells, I would wake the Peri and the Paioi, the Kenii and the Imio -- the household spirits in all their numbers -- to join my celebration. So many nights you have distracted me with your beauty; you wear my hopes as precious gems woven in your hair. Words from your lips, their meanings even undivined, are precious and rare as pearls; I cradle them in my hands, hoarding them against leaner times. Love, come into the deep waters. Lose your fascination with the air. The ocean's drums beat as fiercely beneath your skin as my own.

　

　


	17. Chapter 17

How different this is from Yami's life before.

He had never wanted for company, even if true camaraderie was rarely found. He learned early on that sometimes the loneliest place to be is surrounded by people, knowing not one of them gives a damn about you.

Thoreau said the language of friendship is not words but meanings. For the first time in his life, Yami thinks he understands.

This invisible companion, this "Yugi," may be the truest friend he's ever had.

　

o0o

　

Life is different, lived mostly under open sky. Yami's world is small, shrunken to the drumbeat of the relentless surf on the reef that shelters the lagoon, the wind's breath tangled in the shaggy crowns of the coconut palms, the shelterless sky above, and the shimmer-heat of the white sand below. This safe cresent, gleaming pale curve like the horn of the newborn moon. This untouched atoll, white sands pristine and painful-bright beneath the sun. This shelter, this prison, this lonely paradise.

Palmy days elide into sun-baked weeks, and weeks to months, notched palm ribs marking time. Hope of rescue withers like an unwatered garden. He burns the palm ribs on the signal pyres like an offering to Fate, and watches the smoke carry his prayers to an uncaring sky. Still, Yami refuses to fall into despair and death; he is not alone. Though yet unseen, his friend is as constant as the heat, as predictable as dawn... and as necessary.

Their language is like the sea, mutable and strange; a game to pass the time, ever evolving as the days pass between them. Yugi is both anchor and buoy, tethering Yami to sanity and lifting his head above the waters when isolation threatens to drown him. He is not forgotten, he is _known_ and (for perhaps the first time in his life) not found wanting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edited to fix spacing.


	18. Chapter 18

Speech pales before this communication they've created. Lines in the sand, not boundaries or barriers but bridges bringing them closer. Hearts' secrets whispered in the set of shell, the glimmer of glass.

An odd anticipation settles in Yami's soul. His dreams become weird, in every sense -- myth-like, enchanted. In them, a voice like the music of drowned bells calls to him from the waves, and he wakes to find himself ankle-deep in the lagoon.

Sometimes, he sees a dark, sleek gliding shape in the stillness of the shallows. When he reaches for it, it's gone, swift as a shadow.

"Yugi?"

　

o0o

　

Yami's dreams rise like green bubbles, luminous in the darker waters of the night ocean. The candor of dreams should be terrifying: mind touching mind with no barrier but belief. There is comfort in illusion. But spirits dwell in truth, and this is the beauty of an open soul, laid bare of all pretense. Dream-born beauty, Yugi is a kaleidoscope of color -- like pieces of twilight glass, violet and night-blue and amythest, lost under dark waters yet somehow glowing with captured sunlight. He is the voice of the waves, the caress of the trade wind, the kiss of the sun.

Arising from his body like a dream, Yami's soul meets its mate, spirits touching with recognition, with joy.

　

o0o

　

Night has spread her shadow-wings, like the fins of a great flying fish braving the air. The stars are gems woven into her sea-dark tresses, the moon a silver disk set upon her brow. Harib gazes down upon the sleeping world and sends clever Thenope to answer a merman's prayers, twining him in dreams.

Yugi's dreams dart like little fishes, fleeting and quick before his net. Thenope herds them into a silver bait-ball, a bubble that breaks into a new dream, overweighted with longing. Yugi's heart calls, and finds itself answered in equal measure. Yah-mee's soul is as beautiful as his body; moreso, for his soul shines like a sun, like the petals of a lotus, like joy. And Yugi greets him with joy, with longing fulfilled, with love.

　

o0o

　

Their dream is an Impressionist painting merging sea and air: smears of color and light that could be coral or floral, darting glimpses of fish or bird among waving fronds suggesting seaweed or palm. What might be air or water shimmers around them with the soft blue heat of an unseen sun ( _Sol_ , whispers one mind; _Hetis_ , the other). In this brief blending, two become one, knowing their depths, lifetimes of memory shared (twenty-one, twenty-one hundred) in the beat of a heart. Each knows the other as himself, knows himself as never before. Doubt has no place here, nor lies; only this oneness, this unity, this love.

　

o0o

　

Waking is a necessary separation. Yugi wakes with a smile and goes to chant the morning adorations; he pays special attention this day to Thenope Who Dreams, to Phyros Who Gives Joy, to Nirios Who Speaks and Hears. Interfering with humans is forbidden, but rare exceptions are made. Yugi has followed the constrictions of a courtship with one not of the Sea, remaining hidden so that his Siren's allure would not sway the object of his affections. But he knows, now, that the time to reveal himself has come. The closing move of his greatest game.

　

o0o

Waking is a necessary separation. Yami awakes with a sense of comfort within his own skin, of contentment such as he has never felt. Lazily, he greets the day, and finds each ordinary thing a contemplation -- the sweet taste of coconut meat, the scent of smoke rising like incense into an endless blue sky, the discord of sea-birds, raising their raucous psalmody on the wind. He extinguishes his signal fires, one by one; unspells S-O-S, and stacks the dark stones beside Yugi's cairn. It doesn't feel like giving up. It feels like getting ready to go.


	19. Chapter 19

As the sun sinks toward twilight, the music returns, drifting closer. The tune catches at his tongue; Yami hums along as he watches his fire pop and spark. It lulls his senses. It's daylight still, but he lies with heavy limbs, staring into the fire until sleep draws its veil over his eyes.

He dreams of swimming beneath the waves, weaving through coral castles, chasing schools of rainbow-hued fish, a strong hand clasping his own.

He feels the music in his bones and a lightness in his heart. When a voice calls out his name, Yami rises eagerly to answer.

　

o0o

　

Listen, my Heart. Hear me. No words but our own created can express what we've shared in dreams, impressed one upon the other in the beating of our hearts. My heart's best offerings I lay upon your altar. I know you, as I know my heart; you are my heart. Come beat within my breast. Love has many names, but its greatest name is Joy. Having met you, I am a silver chalis overflooding with joy, with love. Come drink from me. Waiting was a sweet agony of anticipation. But twilight is the divine hour, when Phyros unites with his lovers, Hetis and Harib; so twilight is the hour of our own revelation. Come be with me. Now, out of dreams, I reach for you. I will leap beyond the waves, beyond the sky, to reach you. Reach back for me. I will be your shelter from the stormy seas, your companion in the calm waters. I have whispered to you with the voice of the ocean, captured in conch shells. I have played for you the secret music of the darkest depths, and found the notes of a new music in your sighs. Listen, my Heart, perfect in all your imperfections. Hear me. Come, answer my call.

　

　

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One chapter this time, because I'm still tweaking the last one. I'll work on it this weekend and post it at the beginning of next week, if all goes well. 
> 
> Also, I just noticed last night that the formatting was messed up on chapter 17. I've fixed that now.


	20. Chapter 20

Seafoam sliding warm and wet over Yami's ankles awakens him.

He opens his eyes. Someone gazes back at him with eyes the color of amythest, filled with admiration and sweet astonishment, with desire and love. His breath catches, wonder-struck. With a certainty forged in dreams, Yami knows this is his friend, his benefactor. His sea-god.

His _Yugi._

Smiling, Yugi holds out his hand. His skin is pearl-pale and perfect, flecked with irridescent scales. His hair is the blue-black of the deep sea, long and thick with braids adorned with beads of polished coral, small shells, natural pearls of every size, bits of fine gold chain and coins. Twists of fiber, beads, and shells encircle his arms and wrists. The necklace Yami crafted for him rests above his heart, seaglass glinting in the sunlight. A knife is strapped on a sealskin belt at his waist, another on his arm. A muscular, piscine tail -- fine scales shimmering from moonlight to ocean blue -- curls behind him, and familiar fins flick diamond droplets into the air as he smiles, revealing sharp white teeth.

"Are you ready to join me, my Yah-mee?" His words lilt with an unfamiliar accent and his eyes sparkle with an adoration that brings a flush of heat to Yami's cheeks. "Will you?"

Heart pounding like a drumbeat in his ears, Yami covers Yugi's hand with his own. With this touch, Yami's nerves settle; Yugi is real, solid, not a figment of dream or loneliness. The decision is easy and inevitable. "For you? I will."

Yugi's smile is the sun, and Yami the helpless planet caught in its gravity.

"Then swim with me, Yah-mee," Yugi says, drawing him deeper into the waves. "Swim and be mine, always."

Yami follows him down under the water and, for a fleeting moment, he thinks this time he really will drown. But then he feels the strong grasp of Yugi's hand squeezing his own, sees the promise in his eyes, and Yami's doubts float away on the bubbles of his exhaled breath. Like fragile pearls of moonlight, the bubbles rise in the green sea and burst into a waking dream.

As if he's suddenly caught in a liquid rainbow or a maelstrom of tropical fish, bubbles and color swirl around him, a curtain of light -- tiny glimmers that flash and flicker like firefly squid or a swarm of fallen stars. Suspended in the water, in the colors, he inhales magic. It floods his tissues, traces his veins, remaking. No... Not remade, but unveiled. The magic is Michaelangelo freeing a statue from its entrapping marble, revealing the man Yami's soul was meant to be. Dream-like, gauzy images flow around him and he reaches, robes himself in sunset scales, red and gold, like the love tokens woven into his hair. He feels new muscles, strong and supple, slide beneath gilded scale; feels shimmering fins flex and curl against the waters of this new world. He breathes, inhales water as easily as air. Reborn, he blossoms, luminous as a lotus, lifting his face to the sun that is Yugi.

When at last their lips meet, Yami feels true, _free_ , and filled with joy.

　

　

o0o

　

And, ever together, they lived -- after. _Happily_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Done! Wow, that feels good after poking at this thing for so long. :D There may be some follow up "missing scene" type things, if anyone is interested. (I have LOTS of head-canon and worldbuilding for this thing that didn't make it into the fic.)
> 
> I'm working on a vampire AU for Halloween. (If I can get it done on time!) Thanks to everyone who left kudos and/or comments!


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